RESUME'S My grandfather was a locomotive engineer and got an opportunity in 1931 to operate a train in a western film being shot by Warner Brothers . It was then seeing what he called a family of people working together that he decided to change his career. He started as a grip and then moved into special FX which in those days was a world away from what we can accomplish today, including using real sharpshooters with live ammo to do what we do today with squib's and now computers. In 1939 MGM was filming The Wizard of Oz, the production was so big he and others were put on loan to MGM to complete the film. I mention this as in 2013, 74 years later my son Devin (his Great Grandson) worked on "OZ the Great and Powerful".
My Father was worked at MGM since the late 50's as A Special FX man as well He worked on many TV shows, "The Munsters" "Gilligan's Island" "Wild Wild West" "The Monkee's" "Green Hornet' (with Bruce Lee), "Batman" and many more. So the Ballard Family has been in the film business spanning 4 generations and 85 years. Due to the high level of Nepotism in the industry in my father's day I got my I.A.T.S.E card when I was seventeen and a half (lying about my age). I also worked on many popular TV shows (my IMDB) but had a passion for music since an early age.
As I used the I.A. as my day job I played in bands looking for the brass ring there, and accomplished being signed to Capitol Records with my Band, in which from the typical quarreling quit before the album was complete. That began my career as a studio musician and then on to being a well known keyboard programmer/engineer, where I was lucky enough to be able to work with all of the top acts through out the 80's and 90's. I was very busy doing studio and touring working with Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Georg Harrison, Ringo Star, Don Henley, (to mention a few) to keep up my "day job" in the I.A.
It was also during this time I started slipping back into the film business. Because of a studio I owned I discovered that my programming/sequencing talents could be used on the "new" editing software to go back into editing TV and Film projects. I jumped in full force and worked on Adobe Premiere, FCP, and Avid systems. With the film business being a family legacy it only felt right after many years in music to return to film making full time. SInce then I refined my talent's to Write, Produce, Direct, DP, Edit, Motion Graphics, Color Correction, and of course Production Audio Mix, and Sound Design.
I am no spring pup but can tell you that I am a vibrant creator with many more projects ahead of me and am proud to say that I create quality content. Whether I am just one part of the team or need to take a project from inception to completion. I love what I do and always will. I am also quite proud of and work with my son Devin who is an award winning Art Director.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to working with you all.
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